President Barack Obama meets with, from left, Sen. Harry Reid, Joshua DuBois, LDS Church President Thomas Monson and Elder Dallin Oaks in the Oval Office in 2009. / The White House

Written by

Bob Smietana

The Tennessean

President Barack Obama signs the proclamation marking the National Day of Prayer May 7, 2009. Looking on is Joshua DuBois, director of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. / The White House

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Nashville native Joshua DuBois stepped into a Washington, D.C., hangout called the Hawk ’N’ Dove in the summer of 2004 to get a burger and watch some baseball.

He found his calling instead.

That night the bar’s televisions were tuned to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, where a little-known state senator from Illinois was speaking about faith and politics.

“We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states,” said Barack Obama, then a candidate for U.S. Senate.

Those words hit home with DuBois, a congressional intern and ordained Pentecostal minister. He talked himself into a volunteer job on Obama’s Senate campaign. He later worked in Obama’s Senate office and was eventually put in charge of faith-based outreach during the 2008 presidential campaign.

When Obama won, DuBois became the executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He stepped down from that role last month to write a book, to teach and to start a consulting firm called Values Partnership that will help nonprofits, governments and faith groups work together on social issues.

After two grueling campaigns and one term in the White House, it was time to go, he said.

“It’s been seven years,” he said. “That’s a lifetime in politics.”

DuBois’ first few days out of politics were busy. He’s getting married this fall, and his fiancée, Michelle Mitchell, put him in charge of finding a wedding photographer.

He’s also kept one habit from the White House. He’s still sending President Obama a spiritual meditation every morning by email, a habit that dates back years.

Harper Collins plans to publish a collection of the meditations, called “The President’s Devotional,” this fall. The book will include a dozen essays on faith drawn from DuBois’ time at the White House.

President Obama’s faith has been a source of controversy since he first ran for office.

More recently, the contraceptive mandate in Obama’s health care program has put him at odds with some conservative believers. Liberal critics, on the other hand, say Obama compromised too much with faith-based groups, especially when it comes to their hiring practices.

Faith-based groups that get federal funds to run social programs are allowed to hire only people who share their beliefs. Critics say that’s discrimination and as a candidate, Obama vowed to end that practice.

In office, he changed his mind.

Ed Stetzer, president of Nashville-based LifeWay Research, credits DuBois with helping keep the current rules in place.

“He knew that Christians who care about the poor and hurting can’t do works of justice without talking about Jesus,” said Stetzer. “He helped the administration to hear that concern and provide space for them to participate in the faith-based initiative without leaving their faith at the door.”

But Shaun Casey, professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary and a former faith-based adviser to President Obama, said the Obama White House still doesn’t get religion. He said the administration’s fight over the contraceptive mandate was a mistake that could have been easily avoided. And the White House doesn’t do a good job communicating with faith-based groups, he said.

“The communication shop really does see religion as a downside for this White House,” he said.

DuBois said it’s too early for him to comment specifically on White House policies like the contraceptive mandate. But he said the president believes in the importance of religious liberty.

He also said that Christian faith has shaped the president’s life.

“President Obama is a Bible-believing Christian — he believes in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus,” he said. “But he also believes that the way you live your faith out in the world is critically important.”

DuBois shares those beliefs because of the lessons he learned growing up in Nashville.

His stepfather, the Rev. W. Antoni Sinkfield, is a pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His mom, Kristy Sinkfield, is director of strategy development at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Both taught him that Christian faith means caring for others in need.

“From my parents, they made sure that working for justice and mercy in the world were in my bones,” he said. “If you are not blessing others through the work you are doing, you are not fulfilling God’s purpose.”

One person who is not surprised at DuBois’ accomplishments is his mother.

Kristy Sinkfield said she told her son that he could do anything he dreamed of, if he worked hard enough.

“I remember saying to him, ‘God has great things in store for you,’ ” she said.